Universal Quantifiers

Universal quantifiers are broad general statements that do not allow for any exceptions. A formal description of a universal quantifier is that it is an absolute generalisation with no referential index. Universal quantifiers include words such as all, every, none, everyone, nobody, always, never, everything and nothing.

To explain more fully, consider the following two phrases which are responses to the question 'Who broke the windows?':- 1. They broke the windows 2. John and Phil broke the windows

Phrase 1 lacks a referential index in that it is impossible to identify from this phrase alone who specifically broke the windows. Phrase 2 allows us to know who specifically broke the windows because it includes two referential indices - John and Phil.

With an understanding of what a referential index is let's move forward now and consider the following phrases:-

Nobody likes me
Everybody hates me

Although these phrases, like all universal quantifiers, sound very specific they are in fact not specific and one of the reasons they are not specific is that their referential indices are not specified. When the speaker says 'Everybody hates me' do they mean:-

Everybody in their family?
Everybody they work with?
Everybody they ever met?
Everybody in the world, including people they have never met?

This complete lack of specificity is exactly what tells us that this person is operating from an impoverished world model, which leads this person to make these universal and usually inaccurate generalisations about the world.

This complete lack of specificity is also precisely what the Meta Model responses will challenge in order to cause this person to re-examine their world model more closely.

Two ways in which the universal quantifier / lack of referential index can be challenged are directly and indirectly.

One indirect form of challenge is simply to turn the universal quantifier that the person has used back around on them in the form of a question, using your voice to emphasise the universal quantifier:-

NOBODY likes you? Absolutely NOBODY?
EVERBODY hates you? You can't think of ONE PERSON who likes you?

A direct form of Meta Model challenge for a universal quantifier is to ask directly for the missing referential index as in:-

Who specifically doesn't like you? Can you think of one person who likes you?
Who specifically hates you? Hate is such a strong word, maybe there are people out there who only dislike you?

Every universal quantifier includes an element of exaggeration and every universal quantifier can be usefully challenged with appropriate Meta Model responses.